Mr Trump has adamantly denied each of the nine allegations that have come out in the past week, and said recent polls showing his support dwindling among female voters were an indication that the conspiracy was working. He has also suggested the election may be fraudulent.

“The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places - SAD,” he tweeted.

With Mr Trump taking a break from the campaign trail on Sunday Mike Pence, his running mate, echoed those claims in a series of television interviews.

He told NBC, the “sense of a rigged election” was growing with the “avalanche of continuous attacks against my running mate”.

Senior Republicans have pushed back against Mr Trump's suggestion that the democratic process is not legitimate, amid a growing concern over the fall-out if he loses.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who recently said he would no longer campaign for Mr Trump, spoke out in defense of the electoral system over the weekend.

"Our democracy relies on confidence in election results, and the speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity," said spokesperson AshLee Strong.

Mike PenceCredit:
AP

Some of the businessman’s allies and followers have made clear that they will not accept defeat at the hands of a candidate Mr Trump has said “belongs in jail”.

Sheriff David Clarke Jr of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who has spoken at on behalf of Mr Trump during the campaign, said on Saturday that it is now “pitchforks and torches time”.

“We’re going to have a revolution and take them out of office if that’s what it takes,” Trump supporter Dan Bowman told the Boston Globe from a recent rally in Cincinnati. “There’s going to be a lot of bloodshed, but that’s what it’s going to take.”

Mr Pence was asked twice what he and Mr Trump would do if they were to lose, and he insisted that they would “absolutely respect the results”.

But Mr Trump continues to raise the stakes of the election, saying on Saturday in Maine: “either we win the election or we lost the country and this is the last time… it’s never going to come back.”